German Box Office: Disney Rules With ‘Captain America,’ ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘Zootopia’

Tom Tykwer’s A Hologram for the King started strongly in Germany, opening at number five in the weekend charts with a $516,000 gross on 325 screens, a promising launch for the drama starring Tom Hanks. But the top of the charts belonged to Disney.

The latest Marvel outing, Captain America: Civil War, topped the German box office this weekend, and Jungle Book and Zootopia showed legs as they retained top five slots.

Civil War opened to $8.1 million on 616 screens, the best opening for the Captain America franchise in the territory. The film’s four-day opening weekend was stronger than the entire German run of Captain America: First Avenger, which topped out just under $5 million in the territory. Civil War is on track to quickly blow by Captain America: Winter Solider, which grossed just over $12 million in Germany two years ago.

The bow is the biggest four-day opening in Germany so far this year and the third-largest for a Marvel film in the territory, behind Avengers and Iron Man 3.

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The film’s success, coming after strong performances for Deadpool ($24.6 total gross) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($18.6 million) here early this year, is also a clear sign that comic book franchises have firmly established themselves in the often tricky German market.

Disney’s other two films in release here — The Jungle Book and Zootopia —finished second and fourth, respectively, on the weekend charts. Jungle Book has grossed $13.1 million to date in the territory, while Zootopia stands at $31.8 million, making it the number one film of the year so far in Germany.

The third spot went to a German-language comedy, How to Be Single, from director Christian Ditter, which earned $792,000 in its fourth frame.

Arguably, Disney’s strongest competition in Germany was the weather. Sunshine and warm temperatures brought Germans out of the theaters and into cafes and beer gardens across the country. In total, 1.2 million movie tickets were sold over this past weekend, for a total box office of around $14.4 million.